Acting superstar Jiang Wen is probably still best known to Western audiences for his role in Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum, and he follows his well-received directorial debut, In The Heat Of The Sun, with Guizi Lai Le (Devils On The Doorstep), an intriguing drama set during the anti-Japanese war.

The movie, co-adapted for the screen by Jiang with Wang Shuping and Shi Jianquan, sees a group of Chinese soldiers abandoning a Japanese prisoner and his interpreter in a small village. The soldiers are meant to return in eight days but they fail to show up ­ leaving the villagers in a quandary. They feel that they should kill the man, but no-one wants to take responsibility for the action, so instead they simply leave him alone. Various villagers befriend him, until war shortages see the village run short of food. So the villagers hatch a complex plan to kill their prisoner, while he and his interpreter hatch an equally complex plan to escape.

Devils On The Doorstep has become the most eagerly anticipated Chinese movie of the year, and word of mouth suggests that it may very well live up to its expectations. The tech credits are just as impressive ­ ace cinematographer Gu Changwei (Farewell My Concubine), whose gentle lensing was responsible for much of In The Heat Of The Sun's lazy, lackadaisical feel, shot the film in atmospheric black and white.

MOVING PICTURES: The idea of focusing on a Japanese soldier during the Japanese invasion of China is a controversial one. What drew you to this story?

JIANG WEN: I do not like to avoid sensitive questions. Actually, I think that only controversial and sensitive questions can get to the heart of a problem. I am particularly interested in the relationship between the aggressors and the victims, and the way that violence is nurtured. We tend to think the violence is nurtured by the aggressor, but is this the case? Could the victim also provide the seed for violence? I am also interested in the relationship between human beings and war. Why do we make war even though we claim we hate it?

MP: How did you research the period?

JW: We did a lot of research by looking at documentaries from the time. And, because of the similarity between Japanese and Chinese culture, it's not hard for me to understand the Japanese aspects.

MP: How closely does the film follow the novella?

JW: I took five per cent of the novella and developed the story from that. The village setting and the peasants being given a sack of Japanese prisoner of war are the elements I took from the original material. I have worked with four different scriptwriters on this project.

MP: How did you go about casting?

JW: I chose to work with both professional and non-professional actors. I have actors as old as 80 and as young as children in the film. I think half of the job of a director is to do the casting. Once you have done this job, you have done half your work. So, I would normally talk with the prospective actor for 30 minutes and that would tell me if he was right for me.

MP: How did you come to work with cinematographer Gu Changwei again, and why did you choose to shoot in black and white?

JW: I have worked with Changwei on both my films. I just told Changwei I would like to work with him on this film. He accepted without reading the script. While we were preparing the film, we took out the pictures of our actors in their costumes and made xerox copies of them and placed them next to xeroxes of actual historical photos. No one could distinguish between them. That was why we decided to film this movie in black and white.

MP: You've also acted in your own films. How did you go about directing yourself?

JW: It is very difficult to direct yourself. I have no way to judge how my performance is going. So, I would ask my crew to let me know. But they would fight to compete for the chance to "direct" me. So, I secretly asked someone in the crew to give me a sign if she thought my performance was OK. If I didn't see her sign, I would do the scene again.

MP: How would you describe the directing process?

JW: I would say I first see the film in my head. The process of film-making is to then display what I see on screen. I spent a long time on pre-production this time. I would take professional and non-professional actors and mix them together to rehearse. I also ask them to live among the people they play ­ some stayed in the army while others lived with the peasants. I also enjoyed the editing process, as it was like discovering something new in the work.

MP: What did you learn about directing from your work on In The Heat Of The Sun?

JW: I learned to make shorter movies. But, somehow I ended up making a longer film!

Richard James Havis